Sock it to me!
Sorry. Something tells me that's been used before. Anyway - you know how a yarn shop reflects the taste of its owner, in terms of possible projects? Well I am finally admitting to myself that I am totally lame in the sock yarn department - I've knit two pairs of socks, one adult pair out of worsted weight yarn, and one baby pair out of dk. No pattern, just stockinette stitch. Hated having to make two. (Why? I don't hate having to make two sweater sleeves...) So you see, I'm woefully out of step (no pun intended) with the sock knitting in crowd, and I need to remedy that. What is it about sock knitting that is so addictive? Portability? The chance to try lots of technical niftiness in a small package? You don't have to spend wads of money on one project?
My pledge for the rest of this year, starting now - to vastly improve sock yarn offerings. Just got off the phone with Skacel - they have this soft tweedy stuff (doesn't make a pattern or stripes) that caught my eye.
My hand hurts. I think I'm getting one of those horrid knitter's ailments. Despite that, I'm casting on to make something out of Berroco's new Keltic. Wonder if they spelled it that way so you wouldn't picture Larry Bird knitting something out of it. I just got a bag of it and a pattern book so I could make a cabled wrap before the whole order gets here. It's really pretty, very fall-ish colors. My swatch was miles too big though, which is weird, because I usually have to go up a size. (I always thought I'd be one of those relaxed, free and easy types whose knitting was loose and sloppy, but no, my inner uptight freak comes out.) Anyway, it's whacked. And I hate it when the gauge is in pattern! Still, it's Berroco - on the whole, they seem like they have their act together, so if they tell me what the gauge is supposed to be I'm sticking to it. Have to confess to a tendency to measure gauge at about two inches, though, sort of like in that piggy joke about why women make bad carpenters. Yep, I'm always telling customers that's a big no-no, and doing it myself.
I had such a good idea for a sweater last night. No, I'm not telling! You'll just have to wait...About two months, which seems to be my time frame for getting anything done knit-wise. I did finish the front of my Knotty sweater (I prefer to call it Naughty, since that's how it has behaved, and besides, we're in Maine so we may as well pronounce it correctly.) On to the sleeves. I've done my token screw-up-the-first-attempt, so the rest of it should move along quickly!
Question: is it somehow blasphemous to make a traditional aran sweater in a super loud eye popping color? Cause I'm wanting to do one in this great orangy-red peace fleece....(I almost said 'itching to do one', but didn't want to give anyone the wrong idea about the yarn. It breaks in nicely!)

Back from TNNA.
Imagine a vast hall with a gazillion booths for yarn vendors swarming with people wearing various handknitted items (some gorgeous, many ghastly) and you've pretty much got the picture. I was completely pooped at the end of each day. My suspicions about Indianapolis were right - it was weird! Someone with no soul ripped the guts out of downtown and replaced them with a vast network of giant hotels, convention center and a mall, all connected with airwalks. So really you didn't have to go outside at all, you could just bask in canned air 24/7. Fortunately we found a good mexican restaurant down the street for much-needed margaritas and chips and salsa before we staggered back to our hotel room.
I found that I wasn't lusting after yarn as much as I could have or should have. Is that blasphemous? Maybe right now I'm more interested in how to make it than what to make it out of. And I think I'm just not as intrigued by variegated yarn as I once was, so that ruled out lots of it. The yummiest yarns were from the Fibre Company (especially Organik, which I'm placing an order for), Blue Sky Alpacas (the alpaca suri was so very soft), and Alchemy. (Now, I did just say I wasn't into the multicolored variegated look, but theirs is really subtle). Why don't I carry all of these? Well, give me some time - I'm working on it.
The fashion show Friday night had some nifty things, though the model at the very end clad in knitted lingerie cheapened it a bit - all these great sweaters, then this girl with her buns hanging out of her undies. Went to the Westminster Fibers fashion show too, Sunday morning (I'd thought it was Sat. and dragged poor Hannah out of bed at the crack, then discovered I'd gotten the day wrong. She was an awfully good sport about it.) Rowan pretty much had all the stuff to lust after, as you might expect.
I got the Mason Dixon book signed by the authors, which I then read on the plane. They were very nice and friendly. I like the book, but I have to confess to not liking lots of anecdotal text in my knitting books - just the facts, please! But hey, that's just me. Also got signed copies of the new Yarn Girls book, and the Suss Cousins home designs book. Suss's things have great style. Must be because she's Swedish, ja? I met Jo Sharp and we had a cozy little conversation all to ourselves, which was lovely. She was very easy and friendly, and had all sorts of good observations about designing things that fit people well. I had a great time; she may have been crazed with boredom but if she was she did a damn good job of concealing it. No, really, I think she is genuinely interested in talking about knitting! Imagine that. Chatted in the airport with the woman who writes the new products articles for Vogue. She was knitting groovy pink socks out of Shepherd Sock yarn. She has a blog called everybody loves saturday night and said she would take me to her favorite knitting store in NYC if I went there. I want to go now!
I'd say the thing that really had me drooling was the Habu booth. If you want to knit something out of wool and stainless steel - think fine, soft fabric that stays in place when you shape it - that looks like it cost a million bucks (it doesn't) then look no further. It's in a whole different league style-wise. The whole booth was just sprouting with yarns that made you want to make something crazy-cool. Sigh! As you know, there aren't enough hours in the day to just play and experiment with your knitting. On that note, back to the stacks of unfinished business on my desk.
Ps - stripy vest has mutated into stripy v neck hourglass sweater with slightly belled sleeves and picot edges. Ok, so it's not wildly original, but I think it will work. Turns out the only thing about it that I liked in its first manifestation was the color sequence, which was somehow not right for a vest, unless you admire Humpty-Dumpty as a style icon. I really like the turned picot hem from vogue knitting, which a customer turned me onto, but alas, the fabric was too heavy once turned under. Back to the drawing board. I was supposed to be working on it last night, but I felt compelled to watch back to back episodes of House instead, and I couldn't knit from the horizontal position I had melted into.
Did I mention that Josh is designing a man-sweater for himself? It's out of bright green peace fleece with a maroon stripe down the sleeves, saddle shoulders with some tricky short row shaping. Show off! If I didn't like him so much, his being good at everything he touches would really annoy me....but at least he's modest about it! And I can hardly complain about having someone to turn to when knitting math thwarts me (400 math SATS - need I say more? Do they even do those anymore, or was that just one of those torture instruments of the dark ages, when I was in high school...) And he was kind enough to wash out my luggage, which Mack peed in copiously when I'd left it open in the bedroom (post-trip, fortunately). Now that's a loving husband!

I just want to knit!
It's a perfect day for it - rainy, of course. Ah, springtime in Maine. I must finish my chores first, though. There's always so much to do here that I have to use a knitting break as a reward for being 'good'. It's funny - I'm not a lifelong knitter (I wish I'd learned when I was little) but I'm so deeply hooked that it's overtaken almost all of my other creative endeavors. Which leads to some guilt that I'm not making so-called real artwork, but I'm trying to let go and fly my crafty flag with pride. Sure, I know people knit artwork - but truth be told, I just want to make garments for the most part.
What's on the needles: stripy vest of my own design (v. basic, weird easter-eggy colors), 'Knotty' from Rowan Mag 38 (brown Kid Classic), loop-d-loop asymmetrical cabled vest thing in Garnstudio's Passion. Such a great yarn, though I'm not sure if it will work for that pattern. Might be too drapy. I think I'll be able to tell once I'm a few inches into it if it's going to look right. Pictures to follow, once I figure out how to get 'em on here.
Speaking of Garnstudio, I discovered recently that they've archived all their patterns on their website so you can just print them out (and not sell them of course, just the yarn - I'm not a sleazoid) but what a great resource. I love their yarn and will be happy to have easier access to their designs. I wish all the companies would do that - as a yarn shop owner, I think there's nothing more frustrating than having to sell a whole book of patterns calling for lots of different yarns to someone who just wants one pattern. Don't get me wrong - I don't want the designers to get stiffed in any way. I don't know how they'd handle the logistics of it, but it makes so much sense to me!
I'm going to TNNA next weekend, for the first time. It's in Indianapolis, of all the weird places. Hey, if you're reading this and you're from Indianapolis, I apologize. I've actually never had the chance to explore your fair city, though I hope to at least walk around a bit and get a sense of what it's like. I'm expecting to be thoroughly overwhelmed by the yarn market and may run outside screaming at some point.